S&T volleyball in GLVC/GLIAC Crossover

The Missouri S&T volleyball team fell to Ashland 3-0 (17-25, 20-25, 17-25) in the finale of the sixth annual GLVC/GLIAC Crossover on Saturday afternoon.

Saturday morning S&T lost to Northern Michigan 3-0 in the GLVC/GLIAC Crossover. And on Friday the Miners fell to Saginaw Valley 3-1 in the event.

The Miners saw their record fall to 12-12 struggled to get into offensive rhythm for the second straight as they were held to a .089 attack percentage (29k/18e/123ta).

Alison Mueller led the way with eight kills while Gracey Moon finished with seven kills. Allie Plunk dished out 13 assists while Caitlin Brocker finished with 14 digs.

Ashland (16-6) finished the match hitting .230 (47k/19e/122ta) and was led by Alli Cudworth with a match-high 16 kills. Casey Clark added eight more while Maureen Johnson and Samantha Zuber had seven each. Shelly DeHenning distributed 37 assists while Marci Zegarac had a match best 18 digs.

S&T returns to action next Saturday traveling to Springfield, Ill., to take on the Prairie Stars of Illinois Springfield beginning at 5 p.m.

Vs. Northern MichiganThe Miners had rough time slowing down Northern Michigan's offense and struggled to generate much of its own in a 3-0 (17-25, 15-25, 21-25) loss to the Wildcats.

S&T dug itself an early hole in each of the first two sets and were unable to overcome it falling 25-17 and 25-15. NMU (17-6) recorded 29 kills in the first two frames and had an attack percentage of .264 while the Miners recorded only 16 kills and had a hitting percentage of .060.

The third stanza saw S&T fall into a 10-7 hole, but they ran off six straight points and forced the Wildcats to use both of their timeouts during the run. Cydney Denning served five straight points for the Miners. After NMU's second timeout it responded with a 7-1 run to regain the lead at 17-14. S&T hung close and was within a point at 19-18 before the Wildcats broke loose scoring five of the next seven points to grab a 24-20 lead.

The Miners staved off one set point, but couldn't fight off another as Lina Lopes ended it with her 14th kill of the match.

S&T outhit Northern Michigan in the final set .370-to-.343, but the Wildcats recorded five more kills and had eight more attacks in the frame.

The Miners finished the match with an attack percentage of .151 (28k/14e/93ta) and was led by Krista Haslag with nine kills. Gracey Moon added five kills while Claire Luther and Hayley Wright had four apiece. Allie Plunk dished out 21 assists while Caitlin Brocker had 10 digs.

The Miners used an 8-1 run to break a 5-5 tie and gain control of the opening set. Saginaw Valley (13-7) cut the S&T lead to 21-19 on an attack error by Holly Tarvin and forced the Miners to take a timeout. After the timeout S&T scored four of the last five points to take the opener.

In the second frame the Cardinals scored eight of the first 11 points and forced the Miners to take an early timeout. S&T responded with six straight points to take its first lead of the set. The Miners stretched their lead to 18-13 and appeared to be in control of the stanza, but a 5-1 run by Saginaw Valley cut the deficit to 19-18. S&T stretched its lead back to 22-20 before the Cardinals scored the final five points of the frame to even the match at 1-1.

The Cardinals got off to another fast start in the third set scoring six of the first seven points and wouldn't look back. The Miners closed to within 18-17 on an attack error by Makenzie Frodle, but just like the second set Saginaw Valley scored the last seven points to come away with the 25-17 win.

In the fourth frame the Cardinals led from start to finish building a five point advantage midway through. S&T closed to within 22-20 on a kill from Tarvin; however, the Miners wouldn't get any closer as Saginaw Valley scored the final three points of the match taking advantage of two Miner errors to grab the 25-20 win.